No Venison

After three months of deer hunting (bow season, firearm deer season, back to bow season, muzzleloader/black powder season, and late antlerless season), for the first time since we bought this property in 2002, we have no venison in the freezer.

That brings about a certain sense of dread. 

You see, venison has been our primary red meat for over 15 years.  Most years, when we still had all four kids at home, we could go beef-less until about April.  And as the kids grew up and moved away, we were able to stretch the stash of venison longer and longer. Some years we had enough venison that we did not need to buy beef at all. This past year, I cooked up the last package of venison on November 19th.

So to have absolutely no venison on hand means

1) I have to buy beef

2) our grocery bill is going to increase a lot

3) I will have to make extra sure I am getting enough red meat in my diet that I don't get anemic again (because me and iron ills just weren't working, and I don't seem to absorb non-heme [plant-based] iron very well at all). My body honestly needs red meat, the wilder the better.

Along with dread I have two other feelings.  One is guilt.  You see, I only went out hunting six times, all during the beginning of firearm season.  I saw this little guy (a 3 point)

and this littler guy (button buck; the deer equivalent of a pubescent boy whose voice has just started to change--he's all gangly with not much muscle yet)

both on opening day.  Since they are both small/young deer, and it was only the first day of firearm season, I only shot at them with my camera. My gun stayed on my lap. I knew there would be more deer yet to come in the next two weeks of the season.  Mature deer.  Larger deer, with more meat on their bones.

Unfortunately, I came down sick along about the fifth day of the season.  I'm hardly ever sick, and have never in my adult life been sick-on-the-couch sick (as my kids put it).  But that's how I found myself for the next four days: mostly on the couch, mostly sleeping, and about as strong as a cooked noodle.  What followed after that was horrible coughing; loud, racking coughing that went on and on and on. For weeks.  For a couple doctor visits until we hit on the right meds. (Honestly, it's only been in the past week that I've truly been able to say I am completely healthy again).  So, I did not get out to hunt again at all.  Not during firearm season, not during muzzle loading season, not during late antlerless, all of which I will normally hunt if I have not taken a deer yet.  

Yes, now that we are facing almost 10 months before the chance to hunt deer again, I am feeling guilty that I didn't do my part for putting venison in the freezer.

On the other hand, and here comes that other feeling I have, I'm kind of ticked off at DH.  He started hunting with the bow opener on October 1st.  He stopped hunting on January first, when late antlerless ended.  He had three entire weeks of vacation time from work in which he was capable of hunting morning and night (and even mid-day, which he did a few times).  The rest of those three months of deer hunting season, he had weekends and holidays to hunt, plus whatever evenings he was able to get home from work before dark.  He spent a whole lot of time out in the woods hunting.  He saw a whole lot of deer.  Did he shoot one?

No.  Most of them, he let go, waiting for the giant trophy buck that he'd seen on our trail cam (and in person from a distance). He wouldn't shoot the 6 point, or the 8 point.  He wouldn't shoot a doe at all until late antlerless in December.  He wanted a buck, and he wanted the buck with the biggest rack.  

But that large-racked buck is so big because he's older.  And he's been able to get older because he's wily.  He doesn't put himself in a position to get shot.  He outfoxed DH.  

Then, when the time for shooting bucks had passed, and DH's only option was to take a doe, the deer disappeared for over a week.  When they came back, we had rainy nasty weather, and Christmas, and all sorts of family get-togethers we had to attend.

So we are without venison this year.  I'm a little frustrated with my health keeping me out of the woods, and a lot frustrated with DH being more concerned about the size of the deer's antlers than the quantity of meat in the freezer until it was too late.  Other than making sure I am taking a mature deer, not a barely weaned one, my goal in hunting has always been to acquire food, not impress people with a set of antlers.